Xerxes
"Xerxes" 'is the sixth episode of ''Ghost Genocide and the 75th episode overall. It was told and narrated by Rhys, premiering on July 6, 2014. It was the second of the elongated episodes to reduce the broadcast quantity. In the episode, Gallifreyan and Michael Inatsikap are attacked outside 10GL and search for Tsereve. Later, a fatal confrontation with Katarina leaves Rhys scarred. Plot Katarina was hiding in the shadows. She listened to her phone. It connected. "Yes?" "Darling Ersatz. Did she get it?" "Yes. She got it." Katarina smiled and clicked the phone shut. Perfect. The puzzle was complete. Gall was all set to head down the wrong path. She made another phone call and walked away from 11GL. Ersatz was spying on Gall. It was rather easy, considering the circumstances. Amazing how open her apartment was. As long as she didn't see him, everything should be fine. When she opened the package, her hands flew to her mouth. She ran to get the hammer she found at 125GL. How funny. "Michael!" Gall called. Ersatz froze. "What is it?" Michael said, hurrying over. "We need to leave. We need to get out of 11." "Where do you want to go?" Gall stopped. Michael waited. He put his arm around her shoulder. Gall sshhed him. "I have the feeling we're being watched." Ersatz drew in his breath. But eventually Gall shrugged off the feeling and packed her belongings. Michael and Gall left the apartment. The sickle. It took only seconds to figure it out. The sickle and the hammer. Communism. Ultimate communism. Katarina's plan was to take control. That wasn't too much of a surprise. That was always her plan. But HOW did she intend to do it? Kill the entire Empire and rule an empty shell? Not likely. Like most dictators, she wanted to be revered. Gall and Michael were en route to the Imperial City. There, they hoped to find the location of the royal family. Rhys was already in the City, waiting for them. Taking a carriage was too risky. Gall wanted to proceed on foot through the districts. When they reached 8, they could take the underground subway to Icicle Creek. Michael was inspecting the mallet. The blood on the tip came back unknown when they ran a DNA test. The blood on the sickle would most likely come back the same. Michael noticed something, however, on the handle of the mallet. The letters K and L, spaced out at the middle of the handle. "Gall, let me see the sickle." Gall handed him the weapon. He stopped, set the two objects on the ground in the form of the communist symbol. "Look." Gall bent over. She sighed sadly. The sickle had the letters IL. When arranged together, the word KILL was emblazoned across the two parts. "How is she doing it," Gall wondered. They wandered into a clearing. "This is a good place to set up for the night," Michael said, stretching. Gall raised an eyebrow. "We have an hour til dawn. We're walking." Michael groaned. Gall sympathized with him. She could see he was exhausted. But they had to move. If they stopped, they were vulnerable. Suddenly, Gall's phone rang. It was Rhys. "Gall! Are you coming to Icicle Creek?" "Yes. We're almost at 10." "You won't believe it. I'm in 34GL, inspecting the most recent disappearance. I can't believe I didn't notice it before. We need to talk. Get to Icicle as soon as possible." "Anything else you need me to do?" Gall asked. "Yeah. We need people. Lots and lots of people." Rhys hung up. Gall knew he couldn't reveal classified information over the phone. Any teenage hacker or serious enemy could be listening. If Katarina knew Rhys knew, then Rhys was in danger. The motivation for continuing was stronger than ever. "What about Ersatz?" Michael asked. Gall just let out an exasperated laugh. "I don't know. I know nothing about him." Michael didn't say anything else. Best to let her alone. The two walked in silence through the field. 10GL's lights glimmered in the distance. The sun was breaking on the horizon. "Genesis!" Michael said all of a sudden, "We could use Genesis!" "For what?" "Against Katarina! We used Genesis against Orrupt and now we can use it against her!" "Genesis is another word for 11GL. And we've seen what she can do to entire districts." Michael scowled. "She's just one person." "Yeah, but she's invincible. Those jackets she wears. Bullet-proof. Her entire body is shielded. Her hair is plated with like metal. She can't be killed. You'd have to like drop her into a pit of ravenous beasts. Or drown her. Poison her. But it's impossible!" Gall took a deep breath. "We need something stronger than Genesis." Michael gazed at her. "Like what?" A roar was heard overhead. Gall and Michael looked up in horror. An enormous helicopter hovered near the ground. It was black. Gall and Michael ran toward 10GL. They reached the outer wall when the helicopter unleashed a sonic boom. Gall, Michael, and all of 10GL were knocked unconscious. A wave ripped through the trees. As Gall flew backward, something caught her vision. She wasn't sure what, but when she woke, all she could think was Xerxes. '''PART 2 Gall and Michael awoke the next morning.When Gall checked her watch, it had been one hour since Rhys's phone call, and therefore about one hour since the helicopter knocked them out. Gall looked around. The clearing was melted. It had MELTED. The snow was almost gone. A pool of water sloshed around the middle. It was no surprise it was Katarina's doing. It didn't take a crystal ball and voodoo to figure that out. But who was Xerxes? The name was repeated in her mind. "Xerxes..."Michael said. Gall jumped. "You heard it too?!?" "Well...I can't remember. But it's there. I remember it." Gall blinked. What happened? She switched open her phone. She had thirty-seven missed calls. It suddenly buzzed. Restricted number. "Hello?" "Are you okay?!" Gall stuttered. "Yes. Yes I'm fine. Who is this?" The voice smoothened. "Katarina. How are you darling?" Gall's heart froze. "You have the sickle and the hammer. You have the message. But what does it mean?" Michael was watching Gall with a worried face. Katarina was still talking. "So tell me Gall, what is the answer?" "Communism. That's your plan. Ultimate communism." Katarina laughed. "Go on." "Well, that's it." "Why did you walk to 10GL?" "We had to get away, Katarina. Now stop this. We're coming for you. WE are not alone." Gall held her finger over the hang-up button. But she heard Katarina's laugh. "I'm sorry, am I amusing you?" Gall spat. "Frankly, yes. I would expect more guilt from you." "What do you mean?" "Dont' you see, you may have spared 11 by walking away, but you doomed 10. It's another riddle, isn't it?" "What is?" "Xerxes." Katarina hung up. Gall sighed. Michael embraced her. "Oh my God," Gall said, "Ten!" She sprinted into the district. It was gone. The people were gone. The 77th district to vanish. The closest one to the Imperial City yet. No one was safe. Gall's phone rang again. She was thrilled to see Rhys on caller ID. "Gall!" the call was static. Gall switched the phone onto speaker. "What is it, Rhys?" Michael said. "Hurry! We don't have much time! You have to get to Icicle Creek! It's the ground! The ground!" The line disconnected. Gall's soul flooded with fear. Was Rhys okay? Did Katarina have him? Did Xerxes have him? Who was Xerxes? All these questions. It drove Gall insane. They needed to find Rhys though. They needed to know what he had to say. 10GL was soon full of detectives, policemen, and government officials. As with all the others, no one was to be found alive. A limo escorted Michael and Gall to 8GL where the subway took them to Icicle Creek. But the capitol was deserted. It wasn't that the people had been taken by Katarina; they had all been given the order to flee. Gall wondered how many of them ended up in the districts that vanished. "Here," Michael said, leading Gall to the fountain. Gall was suddenly carried away, back to the day Katarina died. Back to the day Calvin Orrupt sacrificed himself for Rhys, to the day Michael killed Petr to save her, to the day Katarina shot Dugood for refusing to shoot his former lover. The day Rhys pulled the trigger on Katarina and she didn't die. She just fell backward. That's it. One shot to the heart. To the bullet proof vest. Gall tried to stop herself from crying. She was done with that BS. The fountain had opened in front of her. It lead to the underground system. The system through which Castor and Pollux dragged her years earlier. "Oh God!" Gall screamed as soon as she dropped down, "The tunnel smells like a sonic mold explosion!" Michael gagged. "Yeah, it's pungent." "Ugh, that's what happens when you let two years of mold grow in a wet underground, untouched tunnel. This should lead all the way to Fantasyland." "We're not going there. Didn't you see Rhys's note?" Gall lifted her eyebrows. "What note?" "On the fountain. A mountain. A distinctive mountain with a hollowed edge." :D said Gall The two followed the tunnel. Michael made sure to direct Gall in the right direction. Hand in hand, they found what Gall's parents had created before the plague. A recreation of a safe haven for the royal family. A hollowed cavern in the middle of a mountain. A secret civilization. Concealed far beneath the Gingerbread Empire but safe from destruction, Tsereve unfolded before Gallifreyan. At its entrance, its leader waited. "Gallifreyan!" he said happily. "Brandon," Gall replied. 'PART 3' Katarina smiled upon her prisoner. He was crying hysterically. Ugh. People. Behind him, his district. And the next one to fall. Her prisoner's legs were tied to two rocks. She buried his hands in the freezing snow. If starvation didn't get him, frostbite would. "It's too bad," she said, "You made it so far." A helicopter roared overhead. Katarina smiled up at it. She checked her pager. Russeyah was waiting. She quickly sent a message reassuring progress. It was almost time. Her prisoner was crying still. Katarina rolled her eyes. "See that?" she said, pointing up at the helicopter now moving over the district, "That's the rescue force. When I say rescue, I don't mean the people. It rescues me. It keeps me in the dark. Clever, huh?" The prisoner looked behind him at the helicopter. It was sending some sort of light beams into the district. "I have a name for that one. I have names for all of them, but some are specifically clever. THIS one is for you." Katarina pointed up at the six letters on the side of the helicopter. The prisoner screamed. Ersatz ducked behind a gumdrop. Did Gall see him? He quickly checked; she was conversing with her brother. Perfect. He dug out his pager. Katarina wanted to know if he made it to Tsereve. He sent his reply and hurried to find a better hiding spot. Gall was relieved to see Brandon. Family. The one place where she usually felt safe. Of course, one time her family had great bonding time as they fled from a pair of psychotic twins. But she digressed. One year ago, the Lumiukko had died together of a plague that infested much of Tsereve. Now it was only Gall and Brandon. Also Niall, her half-sister. Just as Gall thought that, Niall, Grant, and Sasha ran out of the Grand Hall. "Thank God you're here!" Niall said, hugging Gall and Michael, "You'll be safe here." "I don't know," Gall said, "I feel like we were followed." Michael jumped. "What makes you say that?" he said in horror. Gall laughed. "It's fine, Mike." He calmed down. "Come inside," Grant said, "We need to talk." The six of them went inside the Grand Hall. Brandon led the way to mission control. Grant pulled up a 3D map. "78 districts have been devoid of population in the last 2 months. We know it's Katarina's doing, but we can't issue a case against a legally dead person. Not even the Empress has the power to punish the dead." Niall rolled her eyes. Grant continued, "The district leaders have been keeping a keen eye out for what we've described as 'anything that can arouse suspicion.' Literally anything can set off their destruction." "Any luck with that?" Gall asked. "Uh...no," Sasha said. "Yeah," Grant said, "but look. Out of the 78 districts, 59 have sent URGENT help messages in their last moments. That means the leaders had time to realize what was happening. And two of them," Grant hurried over to a computer screen. "Two of them have reported a helicopter in their URGENT messages." Gall jumped. "We saw a helicopter! Over 10GL!" Grant nodded. "10GL is one of the two. The other is 34GL." "The two that disappeared today," Niall clarified. Sasha led everyone over to another monitor. "After 666GL, we had the districts install 24 hour cameras on every lamppost and rooftop. They run continuously. Except..." Sasha opened the file for 34GL. "Watch." The screen showed the people of 34GL milling about their daily business. Then, the camera started to lag. Soon, there was only one image every fifteen seconds. Then one every thirty seconds. Gall and Michael watched as the image changed from one of a bustling marketplace to one of complete desertion. The camera picked up in its continuous manner after that. "What the..." "Katarina is lagging the cameras long enough to wipe out the population," Brandon said. "Whoa whoa whoa!" Gall said, "She's doing it in 30 seconds?" "Giant magnet?" Michael joked. "They're not Cybermen," Gall retorted. "Huh?" Sasha said. "So," Grant said, leaning against the wall, "Tell us what happened to you in 10GL." Gall explained the helicopter, the sonic boom, the disappearance, Katarina's phone call, the sickle and the hammer. "When we awoke, both of us could only think of Xerxes." "Who's Xerxes?" Niall asked. Gall shrugged. "Where's Rhys?" Michael asked. Brandon lowered his eyebrows. "He isn't with you?" Gall stared. "He was in 34GL," Sasha said, "He was heading back. He was going to rendezvous with you in 8GL." "No, but he called," Niall said, "He stopped in 19GL to pick up something. He kept muttering about the ground." "He's in 19GL?" Gall said. Katarina's words came to mind. "You doomed 10GL" "Pull up the cameras for 19GL," Gall said. Grant did so. The streets filled the screen. But they were empty. And a helicopter was flying away. Katarina held Rhys in the snow. Rhys was screaming. "Shhh shhh shhh, poor honey. Did you lose your friends?" "Him..." Rhys whispered, digging his hands further into the snow. "Oh, you didn't like the personalized touch? Every helicopter is like that. Well, most of them." Rhys shook his head in utter sadness. His district. Gone. All his people. Gone. "The helicopter is the cover story. But sometimes I just don't release the name. For example, that one," she said pointing at the helicopter disappearing into the sky. "It wasn't necessary," Rhys said, crying. "But that was the point," Katarina replied calmly. "You didn't have to use his name," Rhys said with his head down. "Pretend I didn't," Katarina said mockingly, "Would you like to know what it stands for? Hmm? I'll tell you. The helicopter's acronym is the Organization for the Radioactive Regeneration of Universal Predatory Terrors. Cute, huh? As far as the media is concerned, some rogue organization unleashed some horror on 19GL. The public will gobble it up. The most horrifying thing they've seen. ORRUPT." Rhys shook his head in anger. Katarina stood. "Time for me to go. I'll leave you hear though to die. Frostbite is very painful. It should really set in in about two minutes. You should be dead in about five minutes. That will be fun, huh?" Rhys pushed his hands into the snow. "You know too much, Rhys. In fact, now you know almost everything. Goodbye." "You're right," Rhys said. "Thank you," Katarina said, approaching her snowmobile. "I know everything," Rhys said, "including where we keep our secret weapons stash." Katarina turned around. "What?" Rhys pushed his hands into the snow again. Then he ripped them out, armed with a gun. "Fuck you, asshole." He fired all six rounds at Katarina. She flew backward. Production Continuity This episode is notable in that it includes multiple points of view from Ersatz, who was later revealed to be Michael. Henceforth, all the Ersatz POV's are actually Michael's. This episode also had several throwbacks to the first season, including ultimate communism, Genesis, and Mayor Calvin Orrupt. This episode reunited the main characters from Fantasyland. The opening sequence included Niall, Sasha, Grant, and Brandon as guest stars. When Gallifreyan inspected the handles of the sickle and hammer, they rearranged to form the word "KILL." This would later be revealed to be an acronym for Katarina's International League of Lies. Settings The gingerbread house for 10GL was selected because of its appearance of having fallen apart. However, due to budget issues, the majority of the episode took place in empty Winter and Blizzard Beach Rooms. This marked the first appearance of Tsereve 2.0. It was filmed in Gingerbread House CaptainBubbles. Trivia *This episode marked the first appearance of Xerxes. It was requested from the public that a character be named Xerxes. The producers decided to surprise the public by instead making it something else, something vicarious. The word would later return in New Frontier ''as a story arc. *Producers chose to have 10 Gingerbread Lane wiped out because it was a number close to the real-life Gallifreyan; the 10th Doctor from ''Doctor Who ''was her favorite doctor. Hence the line "you doomed 10." *When Gallifreyan reaches the Capitol, she remembers the day Katarina supposedly died and subtely mentions how she flew backward when shot. This would later prove instrumental in providing Katarina's death. *Gallifreyan references the time Castor and Pollux kidnapped the entire royal family in ''Fantasyland. *The smell in the tunnel is later revealed to be the stacks upon stacks of dead bodies. *Katarina mentions "Russeeyah." This is what the Russians call their home country. *This is the first occassion in which a Doctor Who reference is said and Sasha responds with "Huh?" This will become a repeating theme for the rest of the series. *The episode ended on a cliffhanger with Katarina's supposed death. It would be five days before the public learned of her fate. Category:Episodes Category:Ghost Genocide Episodes